Report of the Proceedings Before the House of Lords, on a Bill of Pains and Penalties Against Her Majesty, Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, Queen of Great Britain, and Consort of King George the Fourth

Front Cover
J. Robins and Company, Albion Press, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, 1821 - Queens

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 358 - First, Whether, in the courts below, a party, on crossexamination, would be allowed to represent, in the statement of a question, the contents of a letter, and to ask the witness whether the witness wrote a letter to any person with such contents, or contents to the like effect, without having first shown to the witness the letter, and having asked that witness whether the witness wrote that letter, and his admitting that he wrote such letter...
Page 463 - ... re-examination, to ask all questions, which may be proper to draw forth an explanation of the sense and meaning of the expressions used by the witness on cross-examination, if they be in themselves doubtful, and, also, of the motive, by which the witness was induced to use those expressions ; but, I think, he has no right to go further, and to introduce matter new in itself, and not suited to the purpose of explaining either the expressions or the motives of the witness.
Page 367 - ... did not, in such letter, make statements such as the counsel shall, by questions addressed to the witness, inquire are or are not made therein...
Page 437 - Lordships' question distinctly in the affirmative or the negative, for the reason I have given, namely, the want of an established practice referring to such a question by counsel; yet, as we are all of opinion that the witness cannot properly be asked, on cross-examination, whether he has written such a thing, (the proper course being to put the writing into his hands, and ask him whether it be his writing,) considering the question proposed to us by your Lordships, with reference to that principle...
Page 434 - Whether, according to the established practice in the courts below, counsel cross-examining are entitled, if the counsel on the other side object to it, to ask a witness whether he has made representations of a particular nature, not specifying in his question whether the question refers to representations in writing or in words...
Page 463 - ... against any party to the suit. It becomes evidence only as it may affect the character and credit of the witness, which may be affected by his antecedent declarations, and by the motive, under which he made them; but, when once all...
Page 358 - Lords, the whole of the letter is made evidence. One of the reasons for the rule requiring the production of written instruments, is in order that the court may be possessed of the whole. If the course which is here proposed should be followed, the cross-examining counsel may put the court in possession only of a part of the contents of the written paper, and thus the court may never be in possession of the whole, though it may happen that the whole, if produced, may have an effect very different...

Bibliographic information